Oct 23 (Reuters) - Chinese self-driving startup WeRide

has filed for a $119.4 million initial public offering on Nasdaq

and a private placement of $320.5 million, according to a term

sheet seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

As part of the offering, the Guangzhou-based company will

offer 6.5 million American depositary shares in a price range of

$15.5 to $18.5 apiece, raising up to $119.4 million. It also

plans to raise around $320.5 million in a concurrent private

placement.

The autonomous driving startup had in August said it would

seek a valuation of as much as $5.02 billion as part of its IPO,

at a time when the Biden administration was expected to propose

barring Chinese software in autonomous vehicles in the United

States.

The company was granted approval last year by China's

securities regulator for a US listing.

It was founded in Silicon Valley in 2017 and later

incorporated in the Cayman Islands. It then launched a robotaxi

service in Guangzhou, China, in 2019.

Investors had been closely awaiting WeRide's potential

listing to look for signs of pickup for Chinese IPOs in the U.S.

Chinese IPOs in the U.S. had dried up in the past couple of

years, after ride-hailing giant Didi Global was forced to delist

in 2022 following backlash from Chinese regulators.

The IPO would be one of the largest U.S. listing by a

Chinese firm since Didi's in 2021. It would be the second major

China-based company to seek U.S. listing this year. In May,

electric-vehicle maker Zeekr debuted on the New York

Stock Exchange.